DANCE MACHINE: Victor Cruz did his salsa in honor of his late grandmother after scoring an 80-yard touchdown during the fourth quarter of the Giants’ 41-34 victory. Photo: Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

A week ago today, Victor Cruz sat by his grandmother’s bedside and bid her a tearful goodbye as she succumbed to a combination of health issues including diabetes at age 77.

Yesterday, in the right corner of the east end zone of MetLife Stadium with the Giants’ season hanging precariously in the balance and 80,000 fans screaming their lungs out, Cruz danced with her.

With 6:48 remaining in a game the Giants would steal from the Buccaneers, 41-34, Cruz saved his team when he bolted past Tampa Bay safety Ronde Barber down the right sideline and hauled in an 80-yard Eli Manning touchdown pass to tie it at 27-27.

Once he got into the end zone with his first touchdown of the season, Cruz, who caught 11 passes for 179 yards, broke into the dance his grandmother, Lucy Molina, taught him when he was a child.

“She came into my mind as soon as I caught it,’’ Cruz said. “I knew it was time to honor her and I knew she was with me. It was almost like the place kind of went silent and I was just there dancing with her.’’

In so many ways, Cruz, coming off his three-drop performance in the season opener against Dallas, was a symbol of the Giants’ mental toughness in their comeback from deficits of 17-6, 27-13.

The criticism of Cruz — and there aren’t many — is that he sometimes take his eyes off the ball because his mind is already calculating a way to turn it into a big play. Yesterday, beginning with his first catch of the game, Cruz looked every ball into his hands and then tried to create.

Manning called Cruz’s catch-and-run to tie the game “just a big-time play by him in a crucial situation when we needed a touchdown and he gave it to us.’’

The only thing sweeter than the alarming separation Cruz got on Barber and the majestic Manning pass in the face of a Buccaneers blitz were Cruz’s salsa steps in the end zone.

“First, I had to make sure I’m doing this right so my grandmother is proud,’’ Cruz said of the most important salsa he has ever danced. “It was an honor to be there representing her. I felt like she was there with me. Right after I was done I looked up and held my hands up to her to let her know that one was for her. It was a great feeling.’’

After a very difficult week, it was a deserved feeling for Cruz.

“People forget that we deal with the same problems everyone else in life deals with it,’’ said Giants cornerback Michael Coe, who lost his grandmother while he was in his second NFL season. “What he did out there was a credit to him and his mental toughness.’’

Giants linebacker Spencer Paysinger, who as a sophomore at Oregon learned of his grandmother’s passing from a frantic 2:30 a.m. call from his brother, knows the pain Cruz has been feeling the last week.

“My grandmother was the cornerstone of our whole family — she kept us together — and losing her was dramatic in my life,’’ Paysinger recalled. “I couldn’t comprehend it at first. I couldn’t console myself. Victor knows he’s not alone in this. He has this team as family.”

“I don’t know if I would have been able to play a game a week after my grandmother died the way Victor did. There is no better way to represent her than what he did out there today.’’